NBA Live 06
Posted February 17, 2006
Style over substance seems to be a recurring theme in EA Sport's sub par smattering of sports titles for the Xbox 360 with NBA Live 2006 being the worst offender. While designing a captivating presentation and an attractive graphics engine is important, leaving out key gameplay features, working camera angles and worthwhile achievements is simply inexcusable. The profiteering at play takes advantage of NBA Live fanatics and ultimately hurts the credibility of EA Sports future on the Xbox 360.
As the game loads up, the presentation kicks off with a 360 degree spin around a darkened, monolithic arena covered in mounted displays that illuminate high profile NBA superstars. An automated basketball hoop puts itself together to allow for court practice with Dwyane Wade, a popular third year member of the Miami Heat. This background mini-game is similar to FIFA 06 in that you can continue to practice within the main menu or while a new match is loading. Also, leaving the controller untouched for a period of time will automatically load up a sample game to watch. Overall, the presentation is delightfully entertaining and worthy of a next generation console.
Gameplay:
Before listing the massive amount of features left out of this version of NBA Live, let's look at what made it through. The modes include quick play, season, and the online portion for ranked and unranked games. The online mode can be ridden with lag occasionally which impedes shot timing and control. There is also a fairly expansive create-a-player section for those looking to take custom players into season play. This may seem pointless as you can only play though one season with the created player, which is not much of a career.
The reason season mode is only one year long is due to the exclusion of the dynasty mode. Without even a basic dynasty addition, the abrupt ending to the season is disappointing. You can play through the playoffs and trade players through mid-season, but the ultimate team building tools that a dynasty mode provides are woefully missing. One of my favorite features of the NBA Live series which is also missing is the Freestyle Superstar moves. For those not familiar, the moves allow for your team's most popular superstars to bust out a special dunk, juke, pass, steal, or jump shot at a crucial point in the game. By removing this hugely exciting feature from the Live series, it's effectively decreased the arcade jubilation and turned NBA Live 06 into a boring simulation. In the same regard, the dunk contest feature has been left out as well. I'm assuming EA left out all of these superb features due to time constraints, but it's certainly unjustifiable for a next generation system.
Without the Freestyle moves, the control scheme becomes simpler. There are two shooting buttons, one for jump shots and the other for lay-up/dunks. The directional pad is handy for calling plays on the fly and calling a quick timeout at a dead ball. The plays can be customized and selected through the pause menu. One portion of the control that completely blows is the free throw system. EA was mean enough to introduce a brand new free throw system without any explanation on how it can work successfully. It's controlled by the left thumbstick in a down to up motion, supposedly on a straight line. Actually sinking a free throw shot with this method is like winning the lottery. EA decided to turn the screw a bit more by not including a practice mode for the free throw shots. I'm amazed this free throw system actually made it into the game.
The A.I. is challenging on the upper levels of difficulty, but there are some glitches on all the difficulty levels. The A.I. defense can be unforgivable at times, but that helps on your end especially with double teams. Defensive rebounding seems almost too easy as the ball magically floats to your closest player. One glitch that I found prevalent in games versus the CPU is an odd use of timeouts. During a close game in the fourth quarter, they will call all of their timeouts back to back if you attempt to play any defense during the pass-in. It's a weird bug that's too obvious to miss.
There are four different camera angles to choose from, but the most practical one is probably the wide court shot. EA Sports sets the default on the stylistic presentation camera that switches and rotates based on the court action. Attempting to control players with this camera can be an exercise in frustration. All of the camera angles move far too slow and occasionally miss the action. Passing over a full court for a fast break is almost pointless since the defense is ready by the time the camera catches up. EA should have spent more time fine tuning the camera angles for proper viewing.
96% of the available achievement points can be acquired within 90 minutes. EA Sport's pathetic attempt at creating challenging achievements is not surprising. Without a set of rules to structure the earning process, exploitation is possible through sliders and unlimited simulation. For instance, the season based achievements that make up 75% of the points can be garnered through unlimited season simulation and simple luck. The only real achievement that takes time to get is the online win. Sadly, the increased time required is due to sore losers that quit seconds before the end of a game. I played six full games before finding a fellow player, by the name of TF Legolas, reputable enough to finish a game with. Yet again, EA Sports cheapens the gamerscore system with horrifically easy achievements.
Graphics:
NBA Live 06 is an artistic masterpiece of sweaty players, animated coaches, and high resolution arenas. The attention to finite detail in the player's faces and overall body appearance is incredible. Also, the lower tier players seem to have higher quality player models than seen in NBA 2K6. The head coaches also share the beauty of their players. Their collection of mannerisms is accurate to the real life versions as well. The arena and the crowd have a higher polygon rate than seen in NBA 2K6. It's nice to see dedication to building new models as opposed to importing them from the Xbox version.
Unfortunately, it's not all good news. The facial animations for true emotion basically don't exist which degrades the immersive quality of the graphics engine. The players don't appear excited after a huge dunk or disappointed when they miss a crucial free throw. In addition, the game has graphical hitches when the camera pans across the court. This hampers fluidity of a high speed game and seems to be a problem of poor programming. It's important to note the problem dissipates after the camera settles on one side of the court.
Audio:
EA Trax, the music soundtrack, includes 16 songs of the hip-hop persuasion. The music only plays while navigating the game menu and can be browsed through if you are interested in the artists. The sound effects are effective and typical of a basketball game. The commentary for each game is average at best. Marv Albert, former voice of the New York Knicks, and Steve Kerr, retired 3-point sniper, voice the game at a decent pace. They keep up with the action, but they don't incorporate real time stats into the game like NBA 2K6. Also, I found the banter between the two announcers to be a bit stagnant at times.
Conclusion:
NBA Live 06 is a shallow experience that is doubtful to last for more than a rental period. The lack of established features, the mistake-inducing camera angles, and the embarrassing achievements are the worst flaws in the game. The idiotic free throw system doesn't help either. EA Sports picked the pockets of new Xbox 360 owners at launch with this incomplete game. I can't recommend this basketball title to anyone, especially with feature rich NBA 2K6 available for the Xbox 360. Go pick up NBA 2K6 if you really need a basketball title or wait to see if EA Sports figures out how to create a worthwhile game in the 07 version.
As the game loads up, the presentation kicks off with a 360 degree spin around a darkened, monolithic arena covered in mounted displays that illuminate high profile NBA superstars. An automated basketball hoop puts itself together to allow for court practice with Dwyane Wade, a popular third year member of the Miami Heat. This background mini-game is similar to FIFA 06 in that you can continue to practice within the main menu or while a new match is loading. Also, leaving the controller untouched for a period of time will automatically load up a sample game to watch. Overall, the presentation is delightfully entertaining and worthy of a next generation console.
Gameplay:
Before listing the massive amount of features left out of this version of NBA Live, let's look at what made it through. The modes include quick play, season, and the online portion for ranked and unranked games. The online mode can be ridden with lag occasionally which impedes shot timing and control. There is also a fairly expansive create-a-player section for those looking to take custom players into season play. This may seem pointless as you can only play though one season with the created player, which is not much of a career.
The reason season mode is only one year long is due to the exclusion of the dynasty mode. Without even a basic dynasty addition, the abrupt ending to the season is disappointing. You can play through the playoffs and trade players through mid-season, but the ultimate team building tools that a dynasty mode provides are woefully missing. One of my favorite features of the NBA Live series which is also missing is the Freestyle Superstar moves. For those not familiar, the moves allow for your team's most popular superstars to bust out a special dunk, juke, pass, steal, or jump shot at a crucial point in the game. By removing this hugely exciting feature from the Live series, it's effectively decreased the arcade jubilation and turned NBA Live 06 into a boring simulation. In the same regard, the dunk contest feature has been left out as well. I'm assuming EA left out all of these superb features due to time constraints, but it's certainly unjustifiable for a next generation system.
Without the Freestyle moves, the control scheme becomes simpler. There are two shooting buttons, one for jump shots and the other for lay-up/dunks. The directional pad is handy for calling plays on the fly and calling a quick timeout at a dead ball. The plays can be customized and selected through the pause menu. One portion of the control that completely blows is the free throw system. EA was mean enough to introduce a brand new free throw system without any explanation on how it can work successfully. It's controlled by the left thumbstick in a down to up motion, supposedly on a straight line. Actually sinking a free throw shot with this method is like winning the lottery. EA decided to turn the screw a bit more by not including a practice mode for the free throw shots. I'm amazed this free throw system actually made it into the game.
The A.I. is challenging on the upper levels of difficulty, but there are some glitches on all the difficulty levels. The A.I. defense can be unforgivable at times, but that helps on your end especially with double teams. Defensive rebounding seems almost too easy as the ball magically floats to your closest player. One glitch that I found prevalent in games versus the CPU is an odd use of timeouts. During a close game in the fourth quarter, they will call all of their timeouts back to back if you attempt to play any defense during the pass-in. It's a weird bug that's too obvious to miss.
There are four different camera angles to choose from, but the most practical one is probably the wide court shot. EA Sports sets the default on the stylistic presentation camera that switches and rotates based on the court action. Attempting to control players with this camera can be an exercise in frustration. All of the camera angles move far too slow and occasionally miss the action. Passing over a full court for a fast break is almost pointless since the defense is ready by the time the camera catches up. EA should have spent more time fine tuning the camera angles for proper viewing.
96% of the available achievement points can be acquired within 90 minutes. EA Sport's pathetic attempt at creating challenging achievements is not surprising. Without a set of rules to structure the earning process, exploitation is possible through sliders and unlimited simulation. For instance, the season based achievements that make up 75% of the points can be garnered through unlimited season simulation and simple luck. The only real achievement that takes time to get is the online win. Sadly, the increased time required is due to sore losers that quit seconds before the end of a game. I played six full games before finding a fellow player, by the name of TF Legolas, reputable enough to finish a game with. Yet again, EA Sports cheapens the gamerscore system with horrifically easy achievements.
Graphics:
NBA Live 06 is an artistic masterpiece of sweaty players, animated coaches, and high resolution arenas. The attention to finite detail in the player's faces and overall body appearance is incredible. Also, the lower tier players seem to have higher quality player models than seen in NBA 2K6. The head coaches also share the beauty of their players. Their collection of mannerisms is accurate to the real life versions as well. The arena and the crowd have a higher polygon rate than seen in NBA 2K6. It's nice to see dedication to building new models as opposed to importing them from the Xbox version.
Unfortunately, it's not all good news. The facial animations for true emotion basically don't exist which degrades the immersive quality of the graphics engine. The players don't appear excited after a huge dunk or disappointed when they miss a crucial free throw. In addition, the game has graphical hitches when the camera pans across the court. This hampers fluidity of a high speed game and seems to be a problem of poor programming. It's important to note the problem dissipates after the camera settles on one side of the court.
Audio:
EA Trax, the music soundtrack, includes 16 songs of the hip-hop persuasion. The music only plays while navigating the game menu and can be browsed through if you are interested in the artists. The sound effects are effective and typical of a basketball game. The commentary for each game is average at best. Marv Albert, former voice of the New York Knicks, and Steve Kerr, retired 3-point sniper, voice the game at a decent pace. They keep up with the action, but they don't incorporate real time stats into the game like NBA 2K6. Also, I found the banter between the two announcers to be a bit stagnant at times.
Conclusion:
NBA Live 06 is a shallow experience that is doubtful to last for more than a rental period. The lack of established features, the mistake-inducing camera angles, and the embarrassing achievements are the worst flaws in the game. The idiotic free throw system doesn't help either. EA Sports picked the pockets of new Xbox 360 owners at launch with this incomplete game. I can't recommend this basketball title to anyone, especially with feature rich NBA 2K6 available for the Xbox 360. Go pick up NBA 2K6 if you really need a basketball title or wait to see if EA Sports figures out how to create a worthwhile game in the 07 version.